Sent to and Used by the States for Ratification - Signed by Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson

One of the Official Signed Ratification Copies of the Constitution, The Only Located Privately Held Copy

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America...”

[UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION – ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION CONGRESS] Broadsheet, Printed Document, from September 28, 1787 run of just 100 copies, four-page folio printed in New York by John McLean for Dunlap and Claypoole of Philadelphia (who held the contract as ‘official printer’ of the Confederation Congress), double column of text, set at a slight tilt on watermarked paper, with original uneven top and bottom edges, signed “Chas Thomson Sec’y” at bottom of fourth page immediately following the ratification resolution of the Confederation Congress, light period marginalia in graphite “Adopted it must be & shall be”, and elsewhere “Taylor” with other flourishes by an unknown hand, 11 x 15-3/4 in. Evans #20817

Following the full text of the Constitution and the Convention's resolutions sending their proposal to the Confederation Congress in New York, this printing adds Congress’ September 28, 1787 resolution officially launching the ratification process.

“Resolved, unanimously, That the said Report, with the Resolutions and Letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several Legislatures, in order to be submitted to a Convention of Delegates chosen in each State by the people thereof, in conformity to the Resolves of the Convention made and provided in that Case”

Of the 100 archetype Constitutions originally printed by McLean, it is likely that only a fraction were signed by Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Congress. Until now, only eight or nine of those signed copies, were known to have survived the ages. (The only prior auction appearance of a signed ratification copy of the Constitution was in 1891. We don’t know if that copy still survives, and if it does, whether it is now among the eight known institutional copies).

Provenance: Passed down through generations at the historic Hayes Plantation in Edenton, North Carolina. Hayes Plantation sits on property purchased in 1765 by Samuel Johnston, who in 1787-1789 was Governor of North Carolina.  He presided over North Carolina’s conventions where the Constitution was ratified. The main house at Hayes was completed by Johnston’s son in 1817 and is a National Historic Landmark. For more information on Hayes Plantation and its history in the Johnston and Wood Families, see ncpedia.org/hayes-plantation

Please note: this lot is offered without a reserve

Among the documents discovered at Historic Hayes Plantation was a rare Dunlap, broadside of the Declaration of Independence, which the family sold in 1993 at Christie’s to Williams College for $412,500, setting a record at that time. So important was the Hayes Plantation treasure, that the library, including its documents, books, and archives were donated to the State Library, and recreated in full at the University of North Carolina. One can visit a replica of the room, exactly as it was found at the Plantation, at the Wilson Library at UNC Chapel Hill. The group of documents offered here, including the rare archetype copy of the Constitution, remained at Hayes undisturbed, until their discovery in 2022. Brunk Auctions is honored to have the privilege to offer this rare and important piece of American History at public auction.

One of the most important documents in all of history, this printing is deceptively simple in appearance, with none of the flourishes we are familiar with from the engrossed signed parchment at the National Archives in Washington, DC. In the words of James Madison, the Constitution, “...was nothing more than the draft of a plan, nothing but a dead letter, until life and validity were breathed into it by the voice of the people, speaking through the several State Conventions.” The idea that our new government would be born only after being affirmed by the voice of the people was in a way even more revolutionary than the Declaration of Independence – a document which had been proclaimed to- rather than ratified by- the People. By launching the ratification process, this humble looking archetype became the cornerstone of our modern democracy.

Without taking anything away from Philadelphia’s celebrated role as the birthplace of the Constitution, this document introduces to many the part that New York played as the seat of the Confederation Congresses and the birthplace of the United States of America under the Constitution.

In 1787, the greatest task the United States in Congress Assembled had was the ratification of the newly proposed Constitution. It fell upon Charles Thomson– the Secretary of the Confederation Congress whose signature is on this document– to see to that ratification.

The job of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (then called the Federal or Philadelphia Convention) was to propose improvements to the system under the Articles of Confederation. The Convention officially reported back not to the states, but to the Confederation Congress then sitting in New York. When the work of the Convention was completed on September 17th, the first copies were printed in Philadelphia (by Dunlap and Claypoole) for the Convention through the night. On the morning of September 18, 1787, William Jackson, the secretary to the Convention, took the Constitution as well as Washington’s signed cover resolutions and unsigned printed copies to deliver to Congress in New York. At some later point, the Convention printing became known as the “Official Edition,” but that moniker doesn’t account for the crucial step that was lacking to make it truly official – the action of Congress. After a couple days of heated debate, on September 28, Congress voted to follow the Convention’s request, and send the document without alteration to the states for ratification. It is that resolution, along with Thomson’s signature, that makes the present copy one of the true official editions of the Constitution as it went to the states for ratification. It was this document that was then reproduced by the states for each of their debates on ratification.

Additional Notes by Seth Kaller

We have acquired additional information through our diligent research before the sale that we wanted to share.

The 1784 Act of the Confederation Congress (lot 1505, from another consignor) directs the Secretary of Congress to “transmit to the several states, all acts, ordinances, resolutions and recommendations of Congress.” My initial assumption that two copies were signed and sent to each of the thirteen states was based in part on knowledge that an act of the first Federal Congress specifically called for two copies signed by the Secretary to be sent to each state, and to having seen cover letters signed by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to governors transmitting two copies of particular acts. However, the 1784 act, which does not specify the number of copies, was the one in effect at the time the ratification copy was sent.

When we were compiling the census (a list of known copies) before the Brunk catalog was printed, we believed three states had two copies, which might indicate that the states received two copies each.  However, there is no Act dictating how or how many copies were to be transmitted to the states for ratification.

The copy offered here was found in North Carolina, and another copy exists in the state archive. 

Two copies are at the John Carter Brown Library in Rhode Island. However, I recently learned that one of those copies was given to JCBL in 1906 by the widow or son of John Carter Brown. Given that timing, this may very well be the copy sold at Libbie auction in 1891. In any case, there is no evidence that it originally came from Rhode Island.

Two (or perhaps even three) copies were cataloged as having been in institutions in New York. The New York State Library was recorded by Denys Myers as having a signed copy in Gov. George Clinton’s Archives. New-York Historical Society was recorded as having a copy in the archive of John McKesson, the clerk of the Assembly of New York in 1787 and secretary of the 1788 New York Constitution ratification Convention, although it is not known if that was signed,  and NYHS does not have its own item-level record, and the McKesson archive is presently in offsite storage due to their construction project. The New York State Library was reported to have a copy in the Andrew Elliot archive, though it is also not clear if that was signed, and it cannot presently be located. I didn’t want to take possible copies off the census, which might have resulted in making the document appear even rarer than it is.

The idea that three states each initially had two copies of the resolution is less compelling now that we aren’t sure that any of the three states mentioned above actually did receive  two copies.  

The above explains my initial assumption that 27 copies were signed: two sent to every state, plus one retained by Thomson (now in the National Archives). 

Given the survival rate of other founding documents, however, the existence of six to eight ratification copies signed by Thomson very strongly suggests that more than one for each state was signed. This raises the possibility that Thomson may have signed more of the printed copies.

At the Boston Public Library, the copy annotated by John Quincy Adams may have come to him from his father, who was representing America in London at the time. We don’t know how either John or John Quincy Adams acquired that copy. One idea is that signed copies may have been given on request to members of Congress (ten of whom had just been delegates to the Constitutional Convention) in New York at the time of the printing.

Like Joseph Hewes’ copies of the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation, the ratification copy of the Constitution might also have ended up at Hayes Farm from some other original recipient or owner.

For example, signer of the Declaration, drafter of the Constitution, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court James Wilson fled to Edenton in 1798 (to escape creditors in Pennsylvania) and died there in 1799. Associate Justice James Iredell and Samuel Johnston, both from Edenton, were his only friends, and Wilson was buried in the Johnston family cemetery. 

Though Samuel Johnston acquired the property in 1765, he passed away before the present home was built. The document may have been in his home on the property and survived the fire that burnt his house down before moving to the present house when that was completed in 1817. However, the same group of documents found recently at Hayes includes works drafted or published well after Samuel Johnston’s death. If the ratification copy did not come directly from an original recipient, it may have been collected by someone in the Johnston family prior to 1865, or after that by someone in the Wood family. The specifics remain elusive.

Other notes:

As the catalog states, Samuel Johnston was governor in 1787. However, he was not chosen for that position until December 13th, after the ratification copy would have arrived. Thus, the official ratification copy sent by Thomson would have gone to Richard Caswell, and that may be the one in North Carolina’s archives.

The catalog description notes that the document contains manuscript “marginalia which includes marks seemingly checking off in affirmation.” Affirmation may be implied as we don’t see any evidence of dispute. However, without inferring judgment, it could also be meant to indicate that the section was read, or perhaps copied by a scribe or printer, or discussed. 

The Constitutional Convention’s Cover Resolutions

The first resolved that the proposed United States Constitution be “laid before the United States in Congress assembled,” meeting in New York under the Articles of Confederation. It provided a succinct plan for them to send the Constitution to the states for ratification, and once ratified, to implement the new Federal government by electing representatives, convening Congress, and electing the first president. The second was a transmittal letter to the Confederation Congress. Hoping to avoid Congress and the states relitigating every hard-fought issue, Washington and the Convention acknowledged that every state, if considering their interests alone, would disagree on certain points, but that compromise was necessary for the greater good of all.

“It is obviously impracticable in the federal government of these states, to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all: Individuals entering into society, must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest… It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those which may be reserved... the several states as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests.

“In all our deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in our view, that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This… led each state in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected; and thus the Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable.

“That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every state is not perhaps to be expected; but… that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe; that it may promote the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish.”

Census of Thomson Signed Ratification Copies of the Constitution (Evans #20817)

• Boston Public Library (Rare Books H.90.87 pb). Inscribed by John Quincy Adams at the head of page 1: “An original copy of the Constitution of the United States, attested by Charles Thomson secretary to the Confederation Congress. Issued 28 September, 1787.” Donated by Charles Francis Adams in 1891. Separated into individual leaves; portion of lower left margin of each leaf is excised, with no loss to text. https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/ms35v795h.
• John Carter Brown Library of the Early Americas, Providence, Rhode Island  
• John Carter Brown Library of the Early Americas, Providence, Rhode Island, copy #2
• National Archives (Papers of the Continental Congress, Resolve Books, Item #122, pp. 98a+)
• New-York Historical Society. Per Myers, but unconfirmed
• New York State Archives/Library (copy 1) (George Clinton Papers)
• New York State Archives/Library (copy 2) (Andrew Elliot Papers, SC 13349). Per Myers, but unconfirmed. The New York State Archives notes that both copies would have been heavily damaged by the fire of 1911, and may no longer be legible.
• North Carolina State Archives (Vault Collection, VC. 26)
• Private hands. The present example 

Sales history of Thomson Signed Ratification Copies of the Constitution

• C.F. Libbie, Jan. 6, 1891, lot 2107 - $400. It is very possible that this is one of the two John Carter Brown Library’s copies based on the John Carter Brown collection history (continued by his widow and son before donation to the library), and the 1906 library acquisition date.

References

• Bernstein, Richard B. Are We To Be A Nation? (Harvard University Press, 1987).
• Brigham, Clarence S. History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, Vol. II, pp. 942-944
• Davis, David Brion & Mintz, Steven. The Boisterous Sea of Liberty (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
• Myers, Denys Peter, The Constitution of the United States of America . . . (Washington, D.C., GPO: 1961).
• Rapport, Leonard. “Printing the Constitution: The Convention and Newspaper Imprints, August – November 1787” in Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives. Vol. 2 No. 2, Fall 1970. pp. 69-90
• Seth Kaller, Inc. Private records and research.

This lot was viewed by representatives of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the Department does not at this time have reason to believe that the Lot contains any out-of-custody public records.

NOTE: This copy of the Constitution was recently reviewed a second time by officials of the State of North Carolina, who have again confirmed that "...given the responses offered by Brunk Auctions and Mr. Kaller, and in light of our independent understanding of the historical record, the State of North Carolina intends to take no further action as it pertains to the sale of the subject document..."

Contents: Additional Information

Watermark on Brunk document  - see Image 24
National Archives Copy Additional Info - see Image 25

Other Thomson-signed copies of Constitution
John Carter Brown Library – copy 1 - see Image 26
John Carter Brown Library – copy 2  - see Image 27
Boston Public Library – John Quincy Adams copy - see Image 28
National Archives and Records Administration - see Image 29
North Carolina State Archives - see Image 30

On census, but unconfirmed. One or two of these three many not be signed and when located will likely be removed from census.
New York State Library – George Clinton Papers
New York State Archives – Andrew Elliot Papers
New-York Historical Society

Note
C.F. Libbie auction, 1891. Not on census as it hasn’t been located since then. - see Image 31

This could be copy donated to the John Carter Brown Library in 1906.
Thomson signed Extract – Congressional Ratification Resolution.
PA State Archives - see Image 32

Thomson signed cover letters sent with Constitution.  
Delaware State Archives - see Image 33
Pennsylvania State Archives - see Image 34

Papers of Continental (Confederation) Congress Letterbook – Library of Congress - see Image 35

Not described as signed so not listed on census:
1936 Anderson Galleries - see image 36
1947 Parke Bernet - see image 37

Charles Thomson Signature Authentication Reference
On copies of ratification edition of Constitution & cover letters - see Image 38
On other documents - see image 39        
            
Ursula Mitra Condition Report and Treatment Proposal - see Image 40 & 41